Mario and Yaisy's home page

Memorial Day weekend in the Florida keys

2008-05-29T14:19:00.004-04:00

Overnighted in No Name Harbor on KB Thursday night to leave early friday at 3:00am. in tow was our 24' wellcraft. Just as i was settleling in for an 8 hour passage along Hawk Channel, we smack something around 4:00 am in the complete darkness causing a shutdown of the starboard engine. I Immediatly hit the MOB button on the plotter and went to netural. I checked down below to see if water was comming in and my father in law had the search light in hand and spotted a palm tree partally submerged. After regrooping, I put her back in gear and noticed a slight vibration on the starboard side not to bad though. Overall good weather along the 80 nm to Islamorada. We had reservations at Holiday Isle and were the first ones there. We arrived at 11:00am and timed the Whale Harbor channel enterance at high tide (a must for us). After checking in, we quickly set up camp, fired up the grill, cracked open a cold one and setteled in for a crazy weekend at the famous "Tiki Bar" which as usual lived up to it's crazy memoral day traditions. After some fishing which we didn't catch a darn thing, partying and some gulf side cruising in the tender, we packed up and cought the high tide going out at 2:00pm Monday. very breezy which kicked up the seas to about 5' but not to bad a ride since they were mostly head seas which the YF seams to love albeit very wet. It got a little rolly at Fowey Rocks around 9:30 pm so Yaisy picked up the number "2" red marker and bought us in to Key Biscayne for a smooth ride back home to our yacht club on Watson Island at 11:00 pm. after unloading tons of gear and saying goodbye to family and friends, we fired Siboney back up and headed back over to No Name Harbor where we are now where we have the whole harbor to ourselves. 160+ NM of fun and Siboney never skipped a beat!

I'll post pics later because right now I see a Vodka and cranberry in my near future.

Mario

Overdue update.

2008-05-15T19:45:00.006-04:00

Yes I know I've been abandoning the blog lately. Sorry. At the risk of sounding like an overplayed cliche, we really have been having fun! Since our last update we have cruised to our favorate places in Biscayne Bay, have done boat parades, celebrated birthdays and have spent priceless nights with family and friends. The boat has been running great with minimal problems. All tune-ups have been done and up to date. One thing that we have noticed is that we spend more time on the boat than at home. the boys love being on the boat and have claimed the guest stateroom as their own. There are a few things that seem to follow us around and that is all of the toys that are scattered around in every spot on the boat. What a heart warming feeling it is to step on a piece of Lego or a green army man in the middle of the night while I do my nightly checks while at anchor. It is such a wonderful feeling to see your children having fun while spending time with family. On other days we have entertained friends and have enjoyed having those special moments. On other days the boys grand parents have been wonderful and have taken the boys home on some weekends which have allowed us to escape on weekend get-a-ways. Yaisy and I charish every one of those times we get to spend with each other alone. In Janurary we spent 10 days at Boca Chita located in Biscayne Bay for my 37th birthday. It has always been my dream to one day go there in our Yachtfisher. Yaisy some how was able to keep hidden a chocolate cake from me and the boys. I celebrated my birthday with my wife and my boys and a few unknown cruisers that were there also. A fun time was had by all! Later this month we will head down to Islamorada for memorial weekend. Fishing and fun is on the menu. As usual alot of family and friends will be joining us for the fun. I'll post some pictures that I have taken since October.
Mario

Siboney is her name...

2007-10-24T21:09:00.000-04:00

October 21, 2007

What a great day to celebrate a name for a boat. Not just any boat, but our beauty! We cruised over to No Name Harbor this passed Sunday and prepaired for a great party to comemorate her new name Siboney! Celebrating with us was many family and friends. We had a great time until late night when NNH closed and we had to leave. As usual, our friend Ang made a great cake for us that Yaisy quickly made good with. Pascal and Naomi gave us a really great bouquet of "Jolly roger" balloons that fit the theme just perfect.

Why the Name "Siboney"? The name "Siboney" (pronounced 'Sea bo nay') is derived from the accent tribe of the Siboney Indians. The Siboney Indians were native to the island of Cuba and predates the fierce Taino and the Caribe Indians. The Siboneys were highly skilled fisherman and knew the sea well. They lived in close proximity to the shore when other Indian tribes lived in the interior. In reality, little is known of the Siboneys. Most of the history is handed down through the Taino Indians which were the bigger and more powerful tribe, which eventually over ran the Siboneys. "Siboney" is also a beautiful love ballet from the 1920's. Since all of our family and friends have always lovingly called us "the tribe" (in Spanish) because when we go boating we usually have the WHOLE family with us . I guess it's the way we grew up. Yaisy and I figured since we are of Cuban decent and we are considered a tribe we might as well call our boat in tribute to the humblest of all Indians of the Caribbean, the "Siboney"...

Sign, sealed, delivered!

2007-09-26T23:35:00.000-04:00

After so many years of dreaming and working, Keeping our prospectives during setbacks, the highs and the lows. We finally did it! We have our dream boat. A beautiful example of what a Yacht should be in my oppinion is our lovely 1972 58' Hatteras Yachtfisherman. This particular yacht is in such great shape that it baffels the mind. This boat was restored to like new condition mechanicly and cosmeticly. The owner from who we bought the boat from had a passion for restoring boats and it shows in his latest creation. He is also a man of his word of whom we made this deal based soley on a hand shake.

We hope to bring the boat down from Ft. Laurderdale in the next couple of days. After a boat warming/naming ceremony this weekend we plan on heading out and spending a few days on the hook somewhere in the bay. We can't wait. Our journey continues...

"Blue Light Special" !

2007-07-07T11:04:00.000-04:00

Looks like we're getting close to the new boat. Therefore, the old girl has to go! price reduced to $25,000 but make an offer that I may consider and she's yours! I can't have both boats at the same time.

Have we found the "Mother Load"?

2007-06-28T21:04:00.000-04:00

Yes, I've been pretty quiet. But I have a secret. I guess it's safe to tell everyone now. Well, here it goes. Are you ready? OK then. Guess what? WE HAVE A CONTRACT ON A 1972 58 FOOT HATTERAS YACHTFISHERMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, it's true. We found a beauty real close to home. The boat is in beautiful condition. The bank approves. Insurance is being worked on though. Insurance is a big problem here in Florida. The survey is complete and all that is left is the sea trial and closing. hopefully by mid July we will have her. We still haven't sold our 34. I hope that the broker can sell her in time or take her as a trade in.

Were getting close. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Keep your fingers crossed...
Pictures soon

P.S. Anybody want a 34' Hatteras Sedan cheap?

Time for a reality check...

2007-04-21T10:46:00.001-04:00

It's been a while. I know, I know I haven't been keeping up the blog. Sorry, but we really have been having a lot of fun with the old Hatt. It seems that we have been using our boat almost every weekend since we brought her down from Maryland. We have taken her over to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne many times, we have anchored out in that harbor several times. We've spent the days playing in the park and riding our bikes or watching the boys fish. We always have family and/or friends over. We all enjoy the relaxation and the family bonding that comes from such a unique setting. At night when the boys are asleep, the grown ups stay up to enjoy the evening with nice drinks and good food. Music is always playing. We have done countless day trips, and recently we have finally enjoyed swimming off our own boat. Our boat has been really good to us.

I know this might sound crazy to many of you but many of you that know me know that I'm just plain crazy. But hear me out, there really is logic to my madness. In the movie "Jaws" the life guard that was with the fisherman on the old boat looking for "Jaws" said it best, he said "We need a bigger boat". And there you have it, we need a bigger boat. "Why" you ask? well it's sorta simple really. In the beginning, if you recall I have always wanted a Hatteras Yachtfish but we ended up with our Sedan. Don't get me wrong, it's great boat but for our application it comes up short. Remember, we usually have a lot of family and friends on board which is ok if it's just for the day. but we usually are gone for the weekend. While we are anchored out we tend to find that the head (bathroom) is too small for us mainly the shower. Although I can take a shower, I can barely move around. Also, since we usually have a minimum of 5 people aboard it creates a traffic jam in the galley/head area, not to mention that the port o potty fills quick which requires me to take it to a proper place to dump. Although I don't complain, it's not one of my favorite things to do. But one of my biggest complaints is that come sleep time, I do not fit in the V berth next to my wife. the other side of the V berth is taken up by the boys. So I have no choice but to sleep on the floor in the saloon on an inflatable mattress. This alone has gotten old real quick. then there are things that the boat needs which I knew required when I bought the boat. Some things are like an on board generator. Incidentally, the boat has one but due to it's age and the fact that I'm not a big gasoline fan, I've left it untouched. The boat also needs a good air conditioner, a must in south Florida come summer time.

So, with these things picking at my mind, I talked it over with Yaisy and she seems to agree with my assessment that we should start looking for our future boat. So now I find myself doing the same thing again, looking at Yachtworld listings and doing my homework. maybe this time with proper patience and determination, we will find what we're looking for.

Boca Chita Key weekend Jan. 12, 2006

2007-01-15T13:40:00.000-05:00

Friday after Yaisy got out of work, we packed the boys and some groceries into the boat and spent a great weekend at Boca Chita key in Biscayne national park. The weather was a quite breezy and the bay was choppy but it wasn't a problem for the old Hatt. We arrived around 9:30pm into Boca Chita harbor which was totally packed! the only spot open was at the "park staff only" area. Being as late as it was and as full as the park was we tied up at the staff only spot. A few folks helped us with the lines and informed us that a couple of boats would be leaving in the morning. We moved the boat first thing after breakfast and just in time to watch the Marine patrol enter the harbor. Our boys had a wonderful time. There were lots of other kids on the island so it didn't take long for them to make friends. By early evening, the boys and gang had found a "cave" in the dense brush next to the water that they quickly proclaimed for themselves and made a club. They built a door with palm leaves and even had a "secrete password" for entry rights. I later found out it was "crab claw" but they wouldn't let me in until I knocked on the "door" and said the secrete password. It was pretty neat and they even had a makeshift swing. After being overwhelmed by 10 or 12 "club members" I retreated back to the boat where I proceeded to give the blender a good work-out.

Pina Coladas anyone?

A friend of mine let us borrow his dingy and 10hp outboard motor. My son Mario had his first lesson on proper handling and safety. Soon he was driving around in the harbor at the controls although I was with him. He did pretty good considering he's only 7 years old. Someday he'll go "solo" but not right now.

I finally found a spot for the Magma BBq grill. I bought some clamps and clamped it to the bow rail. It's nice and steady and at a good cooking height and the view is always great!

After two great nights and three wonderful days, we left Boca Chita Sunday night around 8:00pm and arrived back at our club around 10:30pm or so. By the time we were done cleaning the boat it was around midnight.

Club Boat Parade. Merry Christmas!

2006-12-29T23:33:00.000-05:00

December 16,2006

Thankfully, I didn't have to work. It was a mad dash to prepair the boat for our annaul Boat parade at our boat club. Thankfully My father and my sister help Yaisy and I. We finished just in time. We had a wonderful time and my sister Aleida served up some nice snacks for all of us during the parade. The club served up a great feast after the parade and the music and drinks flowed until late. We stayed on the boat overnight.

Hard to keep us tied to the slip!

2006-12-06T20:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday 2/06,

Spent the day at No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne. The boys played around in the park. Mario Jr. had his friends along for the ride and they had a great time. My father in law Raul brought his Wellcraft along and tied up along side us. On the way out, we saw Golf star Tiger Woods Yacht Privacy. A great time was had by all.

Day 19 The Home Coming.

2006-11-30T01:36:00.000-05:00

November 26, 2006

Just as my luck would have it. last night I decided to put that portable AC in the hatch in our stateroom. But it seems I didn't learn my lesson from the days that I was working on the boat in Maryland. back then, I needed to place a plastic tarp over the AC and the hatch to keep the rain out. Well, like Murphy's law says "if it can it will" and will it did! Around 2:30am I was awakened with a cold splash of cold water right in my face! After the shock and a few choice words I rushed outside and was met by a cold Amazonian deluge. I remembered that tarp I used was packed away under the bench seat on the fly bridge. I race up there and found the plastic tarp, I rush down and forward to the bow and quickly covered the AC and the hatch. I finally made it back inside completely soaked and wet. after drying off I went back to asleep.

Morning came with my two year old who was sleeping across from us on the other side of the V-birth, came crawling around and gave me a morning hug and kiss. After horsing around with him for a little bit, We had breakfast then gassed up with 103.8 gallons. We left Delray at 8:20am. Lots of bridges and lots of traffic and lots of "No Wake" zones. Being Sunday and a beautiful one at that everyone is out on their boat which presents a particular problem which I hadden't encountered before. With all of the boat traffic confined in a narrow stretch of the waterway, it made for a very choppy and rolly passage. It seems that the wake of passing boats bounces off the seawalls and comes rushing back from the same direction that it came from. Delray, Boynton Beach and Fort Lauderdale areas north of Haulover inlet had it the worst.

Port Everglades:
one of Yaisy's company Ocean freighter.

The Mighty Servant loading up another load of Yachts for far away desinations

Once passed Haulover inlet, we pretty much new our way home from there. We wanted to visit one of Yaisy's long time friend who lives about a mile from Haulover inlet. After calling her on the phone, her husband gave me directions on how to get to the canal on which their apartment was located at. After tying up there, we were invited in for some coffee. Soon it was time to go, we said our good byes and casted off.

We started to receive a bunch of phone calls of family waiting at our yacht club, that's when I realized that our wonderful, magical ICW trip of a lifetime was coming to a close. While waiting for the Venetian causeway, our final bridge, I asked Yaisy to stop doing what she was doing and come sit with me for the final turn to home.

We made a hard turn to port after the bridge and headed for our club. I looked at Yaisy with such happiness and gratitude for the wonderful experience we had just had and how much closer we are as a family as a whole because of this adventure.

We made the final turn to starboard and saw our boat club. As we approached My son Mario rang the ships bell with all of his might. What a sight to see my mom at the end of the pier waving a handkerchief and jumping for joy then seeing the rest of my family waiting at our slip for our arrival.
After much excitement we managed to park the boat in her slip. Once Yaisy secured the spring lines and her dad passed the stern lines to my dad on the dock.

I reached for the ignition keys and turned off the engines after 37 miles, it was 4:00pm. At that moment, I closed my eyes and in my mind I replayed our journey backwards to where it all started. I was in awe.

In our best traditions we through together a dock party and fired up the grill and cranked up the music and helped the beer and the rum flow. A good time was had by all.

Yaisy and I snuck away from the party and walked over to the other side of the dock and sat in the shade in front of our boat. It felt good to steal some quiet time for ourselves and reflect. We sat there looking at the Old Hatt in amazement of how wonderful our trip was.

Home at last:

Soon the party was over, the people had left, we turned the radio off and picked up the mess we made. It was now dark when Yaisy closed the solon doors as I was stepping off the boat, I caught a glimpse of her kissing the door, I didn't say a word.

To put things in prospective, Our old Hatteras isn't just an old boat, it was (and still is) a vehicle for our dreams to travel in. This trip has been like a magic carpet ride that we hoped would never end. As we walked to our car we looked back and noticed the Old Hatt tugging at her lines as if saying "I'm ready, are you?"...

This isn't the end of the story, it's only the beginning...

Mario and Yaisy

Day 18

2006-11-30T01:09:00.000-05:00

November 25, 2006

Early rise to prepare for another nice day ahead. After breakfast and having a nice Cuban coffee on the aft deck couch while enjoying the morning cool air, we departed Vero Beach at 7:40am. The stretch from Vero beach to Delray is a very nice. lots of big, fancy homes.

After 87 miles, We arrived in Delray Harbor Club Marina at 6:10 in the evening after waiting for two bridges with scheduled openings. Yaisy took this time while waiting for the bridges to open to practice her maneuvering skills while using the bridge as reference. Yaisy parked the boat starboard side-to along the dock after threading through a narrow fairway! way to go babe! After a few drinks while reflecting on the days travels Yaisy's parents took us all to dinner at Longhorns Steak House. Wow, was that gooooood!

Back at the boat Yaisy wanted to show her dad that she new how to check and service the engines, I figured that if I didn't take a picture for proof my friends wouldn't believe it. Well...

ICW Part 3, day 17

2006-11-29T23:32:00.000-05:00

November 24, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Why? I don't know. Maybe it's the combination of food and family all in one place. We grew up in this same exact environment, lots of food and lots of family enjoying spending time together. Of course food preparation in our family is serious game and rivalries are frequent. Weather it's a Christmas eve roasted pork or a thanksgiving turkey it tends to bring out the experts which happens to be everybody and because of this it usually takes twice as long make. This isn't a problem because we keep ourselves entertained with several games of dominoes or music and dancing combined with an endless flow of beer and rum. In case you didn't know, Cubans tend to be LOUD. We laugh out loud, talk loud, we even use lots of hand gestures in our conversations. This all really comes into play when we sit down to eat. The dinner table has always been the social hub in our family. Here is where we come together to talk and laugh and bond as only a giant family like ours knows how. In the end all the "experts" agree that the food was great but more importantly, we spend our time as a family.

This year Thanksgiving was a little different. We found some free time over the long weekend to go up and get the boat! joining us for this final leg of our wonderful ICW trip is Yaisy's mom and dad. Excitement filled the air as I woke up everyone at 4:00am the day after Turkey day. of course it was a mad dash to get the van loaded with food, clothes and everything else for a planned three day trip. Yaisy's cousin did us the favor and drove us up in his van and dropped us off in Titusville. Raul, Yaisy's cousin actually did me a huge favor and flew me up to Dunn's field in Titusville in a Cessna 172 a couple days earlier to check her out and prep the for the trip home. After checking out the systems and putting up a safety net around the railings and filling up the tanks with 42.8 gallons, we took off and made it back home in time for dinner.

After loading the boat and paying the marina bill, we waived good bye to Raul. we were off the docks by 8:50am. Very nice day with cool temperatures and a nice breeze. My in-laws were fascinated with our boat. My father in law whose name is also Raul really appreciated the boat. Being the gear head that he is and a boater himself he really enjoyed the boat.

Raul was impressed with the Garmin 3210 chartplotter GPS.

My mother in-law Daisy loved the roominess of the interior and the security that the deep gunnels provided for everyone, especially the children.

After 65 miles we arrived at the municipal marina in Vero Beach at 5:50pm. We made it just in time to fill the boat with 80.3 gallons of fuel. Once we settled into our slip, we had dinner which consisted of leftover turkey and all of the fixings that went with it.

Later we grabbed our clean clothes and headed for the showers. In here lies a funny story, we put our 2 year old in his stroller on the dock next to the boat with Daisy their with him. As my father in law Raul readies to jump over the side deck onto the dock, he first places his clean clothes bag on the floor in front of my 2 year old. Of course in the best traditions of a 2 year old, he promptly kicked the bag right into the water! After the Chinese fire drill to fish out the sinking bag we headed for the showers and the laundry room.

My son Mario wanted to show his grandfather his new found fishing skills. Would you believe that as soon as he baited his own hook and casted out he was hooked up with another fish! This time he knew what to do and promptly landed his fish. Raul couldn't believe it.

Day 16

2006-11-15T21:19:00.000-05:00

November 12, 2006

Well, today is the last day for part 2 of our ICW trip. We got to go back to work and the kids back to school. We planned to last night to move the boat a little closer and park the boat in Titusville. We got up before dawn, had breakfast and we were off by 6:45am. We enjoyed our last leg immensely. Again, lots of Dolphins accompanied us along the Mosquito river for most of the way. We made Titusville Municipal Marina at 10:50am after 24.4 miles traveled. We unloaded the boat and washed her down while the boys stared in amazement of the 5 or 6 Manatees that had swam over to our fresh water hose. We rented our car and got on I-95. On our way home, Yaisy and I couldn't believe how great it has all been, how much fun we've been having and how time flew by. but most of all, we realized we have been blessed.

see ya in a few weeks.

Mario

Day 15

2006-11-15T20:09:00.000-05:00

November 11, 2006

We had little sleep last night. My mom, stepfather and my sister Aleida showed up at our boat at 2:00am. They were tired from a 5 hour road trip from Miami. Of course, we had to give them the "grand tour" of our boat at that time. after a few laughs, Yaisy helped them set up the convertible sofa and get their bags put away. After a few more hours of sleep it was time to get up. Yaisy as usual, made a great breakfast for everyone. My mom helped with the cleanup and my sister kept an eye on the boys while I went to the dock office to inquire about fuel. After about a half an hour wait, we took on 130 gal of fuel. I filled up the fresh water tank. We left the St Augustine at 7:45am. New Smyrna was our goal for the day. What a great day to cruise. The sun was out, the temperature was in the mid 70's and everyone was having a great time and enjoying the comfort of the boat.

There is a lot to see along this stretch of the ICW. Many beautiful homes mixed in with the marsh lands. We also saw lots of dolphins. as a matter of a fact, I couldn't of imagined all of the dolphins that are in the ICW. I have seen countless numbers of dolphins here. Way more that I have seen in the ocean.

After 61 miles of travel we pulled into the City of New Smyrna Beach marina. We made a great Surf and turf on the BBq and while we waited for that we cooled ourselves with a few drinks. I sat back in the couch on the aft deck to relax and watch my 7 year old son Mario fish. He had been working on catching his very first fish all week but we have been moving most of the time with little fishing time allowed, and when we were fishing we weren't having much luck. My son Mario kept saying "I'm going to catch a fish". And then it happened, just before night fall he casted out his line just off the bow and waited and waited then all of a sudden, POW! he was hooked up! he was so shocked he looked over at me with a "now what" look on his face. I damn near fell over trying to get out of my seat while yelling "REEELLL UM IN"! He cranked and cranked and cranked while the fish struggled against the line. He was really focused on landing his fish. Finally after a minute or so my son lifted the fish over the rail. My son had caught his first fish all by himself with no help from no one. He was the happiest boy in the world at that moment. I was the most proudest dad in the universe. Until this moment, I only dreamed of seeing my boy fish now I got to live it. I love my life.

Day 14

2006-11-14T18:20:00.000-05:00

November 10, 2006

After a good restful night we got up early and waited for the Hampton River Club on Little Simmons Island to open up so we can pay our bill then we we're off for St. Augustine Fl with a tech stop for fuel along the way. We finally departed at 7;45am. After about an hour and a half we arrived at Golden Isles Marina on the Frederica river, St. mile 675.
Great marina with excellent staff and a great jumping off point for an offshore run to Florida. After taking on 114 gal of fuel and Yaisy buying a Georgia flag for our collection, we set off for Florida. It was a perfect day with a perfect forecast of light and variable winds and seas 2' to 3'.

It pretty much stayed as predicted until the late afternoon. The seas started to pick up. The swells were around 3' or 4' but widely spaced. The wind picked up to around 12 kts and made the sea a little choppy. I really didn't want to slow down because I was expecting a nightfall entrance into the St. Augustine inlet. We kept the speed at about 10.5 Kts which made the boat very wet. The analogy that the infamous surveyor Dave Pascoe said of Hatteras Yachts throwing water like a busted fire hydrant was an understatement.

Although the ride was very wet we stayed very dry and comfortable. Which brings up a good point of the difference between traveling by motorboat or under sail. Sailors have to wear lots of foul weather gear and spend most of their time outside where as motorboaters spend most of their time in the comfort of their wheelhouse with a different kind of foul weather gear.
As an example, let me show the intensity of concentration we power boaters require and the foul weather gear we dawn:

sweat pants and my green, John Deere socks. nice, dry carpet

The Boys stayed entertained most of the way by playing with each other or playing with their collection Hotwheels or looking outside and spotting dolphins.

Mario Jr. keeping watch:

We passed the St Augustine inlet at 6:45pm and tied up to our slip at the Conch House Marina by 7:00pm. Tomorrow, my mom, stepfather and sister Aleida are joining us for the weekend. 100.6 miles traveled. dinner, shower, laundry, engine checks, and a good nights sleep capped off a great day.

Day 13

2006-11-14T17:51:00.000-05:00

Thursday, November 09, 2006

After taking on 114gals of fuel, we departed Hilton Head for Georgia. After just 3 hours into the trip we were already in Georgia. Our mission today was to find fresh fish somewhere along the way. Not to many ports of call on this strech of the ICW. Actually there were few homes, mostly rural. We saw lots of dolphins again and one was swimming on our wake. This time I left the helm, I wanted to see the dolphins up close.

We spotted a fishing boat along the way, a real big one too. We slowly approached them since they were not listening to their radio as we hailed. The fisherman were all in the back working the nets. Mario on the helm and I went to the Bow and asked the fisherman if they would trade fish for beer. They immedietly stopped the boat and said yes of course. I gave them a six pack of beer and they stuffed a 12 pack soda box full of fish and shrimp they just took of their nets. This was the freshest fish we’d ever had.

We started realizing the next marina was but 40 miles away and the sun was staring to go down, we may have to anchor out. At around 5:17pm we approached a mean low tide. This was no easy task. We decided if we hit bottom we will just anchor out and fry our fresh fish. Just as we were getting ready to put down the hook, we found a small boat club on the other side of the river. The problem was that to get to them was another 3 miles and the sun was setting. So with Yaisy on the bow, we slowly continued. I must admit, I didn't feel good about continuing in the dark in such a narrow and shallow river but we were getting closer and Yaisy was spotting the day markers with the spotlight and I was steering with the chart plotter. We finally made it to the marina way past dark. It was very exciting but scary at the same time. Been there, done that, but I won't do that again. The sunset was the most beautiful I have ever seen. Don't belive me?

Day 12

2006-11-10T22:16:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, November 8 2006

Departed Charleston at 7:45 am nice 85.8 mile run. We arrived at night into Hilton Head SC. We stayed at a really nice marina called Harbor Town Yacht Basin on mile marker 564. the place was closed when we arrived but we had called earlier and got a spot on the fuel dock. We entered the marina through the entrance markers and found the dock. During the day, the marina shoulden’t be to hard to find because it has a red and white striped light house. Once inside, Waiting for us at the fuel dock was a welcome package with a nice letter, a 50amp splitter they let us borrow and a bottle of wine! We showered and did the laundry. Dinner was grilled lamb chops for me and grilled pork chops and bratwurst sausages for Yaisy and the boys. Later, I did the engine checks. Fuel will have to wait until morning.

Day 11

2006-11-10T22:15:00.000-05:00

Tuesday November 7, 2006

Departed Hague Marina at 5:30 am under dark skies and rain. We stopped at Bucksport Marina for fuel. While there, the trawler in front of us on the gas dock flagged us down as we were pulling out. The interesting thing is that they were literally flagging us down with a Burgee of our yacht club! What a great surprise to find members of our small club in such a remote place. The nice folks were Elli and Chuck on their MY Rachel. They said that it’s been about 3 years since they have been down there. I guess they travel in a different direction.

Later in the morning it really started to rain. It came down really hard and reduced the visability to about 100’ or so. I brought the boat to a slow idle but soon found that I could not navigate by visual reference! All I had was my chart plotter for direction. A few minutes later it eased up enough to at least see the next markers. It rained for most of the trip into Charleston SC and we chopped up a crab buoy along the way (no damage). We entered Charleston Harbor just as sunset approached, but we were still about 40 minutes away from port. The problem was that due to all of the rain, fog was starting to develop. About 5 miles out of the marina, visibility really started to deteriorate, just at that time the “marine warning” feature of our GPS (XM weather) informed us of the fog. We finally picked up the entrance markers into the marina and arrived in Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina at 5:30pm after 85 miles traveled on this leg.

We pulled up to the fuel dock, took on 106 gal.of fuel and received our slip assignment. We parked the boat next to the aircraft carrier USS York Town, How cool it that! The marina is on Hilton property but the docks are run by another company. The marina staff were real nice and helpful but the hotel staff were a pain in the ass. The facilities were first class none the less. A very exciting and challenging day for us. We are loving every minute of it.

Day 10

2006-11-10T22:14:00.000-05:00

Monday November 6, 2006

We woke up at 5:30am, we learned our lesson about the sun by now and the marinas deal. I started to make breakfast at that time while everyone else was still asleep and just as I am getting ready to start my scrambled eggs the power goes out. I wake up Mario have him go out side and he said there is nothing he can do because the breaker on shore was bad. So he turns on the Bar-BQ for me and that is where I warmed the hot chocolate and finished the scrambled eggs with ham onion and red peppers and toast. We took off at exactly 6:30am. We were happy to have gained another hour and a half of sun light. It was a nice ride all along. Just before Carolina Beach we heard on the radio someone had fallen off a ship just 2 miles from us and they were giving heads up to look out, although a helicopter was already in the air. They had a system called EPIRB. This is an emergency locator, which once activated tells the coast guard where you are how many people aboard and your type of vessel. I want one of those I told Mario. Around Carolina beach there were a lot of small boats fishing on the jetty and I mean a lot. It looked like a fishing tournament of small 10 foot fishing boats. We also saw a family of 6 deer right off the beach (pic). The houses along the way were beautiful. There were several boats along with us also heading south. One of them was going a little further down to BVI. Later, we heard on the radio of the boat with the missing person was later found. These VHF radio is a lot of fun for me. It was like hearing a soap opera on the air hearing all these people along the way arguing and cussing, because of boats going too fast with big wakes or others were cutting each other off ect. Mario Junior did home work and I emailed his teacher to get more of his school work faxed to me at the next marina we’ll be arriving at. This seems to be working just fine we also found out there are two days this week with no school, and that worked out even better.
Around 10 am we called a Marina in South Carolina and booked our selves for tonight. As the day progressed and since we had a lot of current helping us along we made it too early so we cancelled the RSVP and started to look for another marina about 20 miles past which was as much day light we had left. We got lucky again and found one. We stayed at the Hague Marina on Mile Marker 368. They had a gas station but no gas so we just filled up the water tank and although this marina is in the middle of the woods they have a laundry and shower .We hear there should be more gas stations a little further down which we will catch tomorrow morning. We plan to get up just a half hour earlier. Speaking of showers, the showers here was a disaster! the tub was leaking all over the place and the washer leaked too and the dryer would not dry even after $5.00 in quarters. Well Junior and I went for a dingy ride he was a little frightened the water was really dark and all kinds of animal’s noises were coming from the forest. The whole ride lasted 10 minutes.

The boys playing with the marina dog and picking pinecones:

The kids went to bed early and Mario had a scotch on the rocks and I had it with ginger ale. We saw the movie “Grumpy Old Men” on DVD. We stayed up until late in the evening. This marina cost us a whole $30 with power. Arrived at 4:30pm. Fuel unavailable

Day 9

2006-11-10T22:12:00.000-05:00

Sunday, November 5, 2006

We woke up at 6:30am and by the time we were done with breakfast and the engine checks, and on our way, it was 7:45am again. The trip was the most amazing we had with dolphins swimming with us almost through out the whole trip. When I say swimming with us I mean it, they were surfing along on our bow wave.

The kids were super exited. I was driving so I only got to see them in the pictures. Except for the dolphin pods I saw away from the boat. We started calling Marinas around 4pm again, we did not learn our lesson. We must have called about 5 marinas to get space for the night and they were all full. We finally had two choices staying in one without power, or staying in one with power but no showers or laundry. We opted for the power, we rather warm at night than cold, besides, we have a shower onboard. Not a bad choice after all, we stayed at Bridge Tender Marina in Wilmington, NC. The marina turned out to have a wonderful 5 star restaurant. Tonight, I am not doing laundry, so I am not cooking either. Mario did not think about it twice he and I had been craving seafood since we got to the boat. We had a great dinner but of course the baby was busy throwing toys around. But the more wine I drank the more of an angel face he had to me anyway. Mario was having beer so he never stopped seeing the baby’s little brat side.

Anyways we turned the heater on and had a nice and warm night of sleep. Traveled 71.4 miles and took on 91.7 of fuel. Strong cross-current in narrow fairway into marina.

Day 8

2006-11-10T22:00:00.001-05:00

Saturday, November 4, 2006

It’s now 7am, since Mario did the engine checks last night, it was all about making breakfast and putting plenty of clothes on to start our trip over to Beufort Docks in Beaufort NC. The kids were still sleepy so right after breakfast they went right back to sleep. When I went outside to return the heater to Ted I realized the boat was full of ice and all around the dock. The dock was white instead of wood color. It went down into the low 30s over night.

At 8:00am we started our trip. Then it got a little windy the seas got up to 4-5 foot waves. It got a little rough but she hardly felt it. Around 4pm we checked the celestial chart page on the GPS and realized in about an hour and 15 minutes the sun will be going down. We quickly looked up a marina where to spend the night and the first place was a place called Beaufort Docks on Statue mile 200. We called in and literary got the last slip available. They gave us a tip of advice call on the phone ahead of time tomorrow for your next stop because everyone is heading south and the spaces are going fast. We realized we were the last ones in when we got the slip next to the fuel dock. But since it closes at night it was no problem. Beaufort was beautiful, with homes dating back to the early 1700s quaint shops, museums and many good restaurants and delightful scenery. At the bar owned by the dock we received 4 tokens for 4 free beers. Although it was very cold they were much needed. I started to look for the car keys which had our last spare of the boat’s door keys which had a pad lock. I coulden’t find them. I told Mario I am sorry I have no idea where they can be, I must have given them to you and he said that is easy to say. After looking around I found a set of lock keys laying around that belonged to a lock, I put them on my pocket and said Mario we are ready to go the taxi is waiting. He said yeah who cares about the house. All I care about is the boat and this trip. we’ll worry about finding the house keys when we get to Florida. We called a cab after words and went to Walmart. We purchased our own heater and others supplies for the kids like gloves, jackets and things of that nature they’ll rarely use again in Florida. A taxi picked us up and took us back to our Boat. Just as I tried to open the lock I realize it is not the right key. Those I found laying around were the keys to the bike lock. Now we have our hands full of groceries, we are hungry, tired, cold and can not get into our own boat because we are locked out. We tried the windows on the port side with no luck. All the screens were locked. We tried the windows on the starboard side and the last one we tried was the only one not locked. So we send Mario junior inside since he is the skinniest of the three and once he’s inside, he stands at the door and looks at us and says now what? Then I realize I need to get through the window to try to find the keys since there is nothing open around where they would sale a bolt cutter to cut the lock. Well once inside and by a miracle of God I remembered I placed the keys inside my make up bag for whatever reason. We had a nice steak from the BBQ, French fries, white rice and black beans. The showers at Beufort Docks Marina were not good at all. They had no laundry room and the pile is adding up, with kids changing clothes every hour. The kids fell asleep early and we spent the rest of the night relaxing and looking forward to spending another day in North Carolina. To tired to do the engine checks, we’ll do it in the morning. Arrived at 4:15 pm, 86 gals fuel.

ICW Part 2 day 7

2006-11-10T21:48:00.000-05:00

Thursday, November 2 2006

I was in the middle of a Seminar my company asked me to attend called one Crowley and the phrase of the day was Be Here Now. That could not have come at a more perfect time. My husband calls me during my break and tells me “when are you getting out, I have the kids showered and a car rented full of winter clothes. I said, what? Where are we going? He said to get our boat. Immediately I asked the facilitator of the meeting how long before we are done because I needed to “Be Here Now” for my family. Well at 5pm I was going South on I-95. I made it home in 30 minutes from Port Everglades. Sure enough when I got home the kids where showered, dinner was done and the rental car was ready to go. I was super happy to see the kids so excited about the trip. They were all dressed up as if it was 30 degrees in Miami. We started on the road trip to Greenville North Carolina at 8pm sharp. The kids slept all the way through the night. The next morning at 7:30am we were in North Carolina. Needless to say we drove all night non stop. The marina we kept the boat at in Dowry Creek in Belhaven, N.C. had the best service we’d ever experienced (thanks Ted!). The marina had a ride waiting for us at the place we dropped off the car in Greenville airport. We arrived at the marina after being awake for 26 hours. We were excited, the moment we had been waiting for had arrived and there she was waiting for us. Our boat, sitting patiently like a grandmother waiting for her grandkids, looked good considering a 55 mile an hour wind storm had just passed through the week before. The only damage was to the blue, aft deck shade top Mario temporally rigged up which he fixed. The batteries were dead, we realized this after the DC lights would not turn on. Apparently the two batteries were drained when the shore power was lost for a few days after the storm but by the time the marina staff noticed and put the power back on, the batteries where dead from bilge pump use. Mario said “no problem Baby, this is why we carry spares”. He took out the dead batteries but when he went to put in the new ones he noticed that they sold him the wrong batteries! He bought 12 volt deep cycles but they delivered 24 volt group 27 batteries which look the same. Mario shrugged his shoulders and went to the auto parts store and bought the correct batteries and an extra battery charger just in case and I needed to do the groceries. The marina gave us a courtesy car and some advice when on the road to watch out for black bears and deer. Sure enough we saw a couple dead deer on the side of the road while on our way to get groceries. As far as the black bears we were only able to see them in pictures recently taken by the owner of the marina a few weeks back on his way to do his groceries. We got back and filled up the refrigerator with fresh food, the lower cabinets with lots of candies and the upper ones with plenty of booze for the big kids. The marina loaned us a heater for the night, they said it is going to get really cold. We tested the engines or the “ladies” as Mario affectionately calls them now. They started at the first try! Their sound was telling us “Sweet dreams guys see you tomorrow morning”. We went to bed around 830pm we were dead tired.

Day 6

2006-10-02T21:34:00.000-04:00

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Today was a major bummer for our ICW trip. We got up at sunrise and prepared for another early departure. We had breakfast then we departed Dowry creek marina at 7:52AM. It looked like another beautiful day was on the horizon. Once we rounded green 15 we came into cell phone range. We had six missed calls and 2 messages. Yaisy went to work on getting the messages as I was making my turn to the south. We were already about an hour out of the marina where we were at and south of Belhaven, NC. Yaisy told me we had bad news, I had a call from my job that my DC-10 check-out was Monday the 2nd at 7:00 am. I called my boss to confirm. Anyhow, we decided it would be faster to turn around and get a ride from the marina to the airport. We didn’t want to back track an hour so we thought about leaving the boat in Belhaven since it was almost abeam us. But Yaisy called River Forest marina to compare their monthly rates. Well, I’m happy to say that Dowry Creek Marina is $200 cheaper than River Forest marina and power is included. And the folks are really nice too. Ted the guy in charge there is super nice and he really knows how to host cruisers. We arrived back at the slip in Dowry Creek at 9:30 am. We took about an hour to ready the boat for an extended stay and got a ride to Greenville airport. This portion of our ICW trip has been absolutely wonderful for us rookies. I hope that our second half of this trip will be just as fun as the first half. I hope to be back soon.

Here's a picture of me in my new office:

Day 5

2006-10-02T21:11:00.000-04:00

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Beautiful day, calm waters, had breakfast then we were off by 7:52 am. Crossed the Pasquotank River and the Albemarle Sound averaging 7.8 kts. We did a tech stop at the Alligator river marina located at the NW corner of the swing bridge just before mile 85 where we put on 80.8 gal of fuel.

There was no fuel dock in Elizabeth city for some reason. Nice trip all the way to Upper Dowry creek and to Dowry creek marina where we are now. We took on 65.2 gal of fuel. Total distance traveled today is 75 miles.

I cooked up two nice rib eyes on the bbq and Yaisy made up some mix salad and some fried up some French fries. I did my engine check before dinner that way we are good to go in the morning with no hassle. The boat is running good. I’m happy, Yaisy is happy and that’s all that matters.

Day 4

2006-10-02T20:58:00.000-04:00

Friday September 29, 2006

Today we stayed in port here in Elizabeth city. The forecast was for a cold front to come through overnight and be clear by the morning. The forecast called for winds 15 to 20 kts. With gusts to 25. I wasn’t in the mood to be crossing the Pasquotank River and the Albemarle Sound in that kind of weather besides, we needed to do some laundry and groceries and make a stop at Wal-mart. By the way, we are staying a Pelican marina. Nice cozy place with a small store. The showers are clean and there’s a washer and dryer for the laundry. The folks here are very nice.

After breakfast and some catching up on this journal, I lowered our bikes off the top of the boat and off we went into town. The town of Elizabeth city has everything you could ever need and is quite nice. We rode our bikes about 2 miles or so to get to Wal-mart. I picked up a few things we needed and most importantly a stereo and a small inverter that I can plug into the cigarette lighter so we can hear some XM radio that is piped in from the Garmin. After wal-mart, we rode over to the Food Lion grocery store to do the groceries. After loading everything in the bikes we rode back to the boat.

We took some pictures in the historical section of the city then headed back to the boat. After putting away the groceries, I installed the cigarette lighter outlet and plugged in the inverter. Finally we have a nice stereo with satellite radio to boot. But of course I can’t leave well enough alone. Late last night I plugged in our laptop to see if we can also power the computer while the stereo in also plugged in. well, the answer is no. I guess the inverter can’t handle both of them so it did what any self respecting electronic device would do, it burned out the stereo. Oh’ well, back to Wal-mart somewhere down the ICW for a new stereo.
I made some baby back ribs on the new gas Magma grill and Yaisy made some white rice with black beans and a mixed salad with vinaigrette dressing.

After dinner I made an aft deck sun shade out of the old, blue canvas enclosure that was used to keep the weather (snow?) out. Some old rope, a few tie wraps and two boat hooks for poles and we now have a shaded aft deck. It’s not the prettiest but it works. She’ll get a proper enclosure once we arrive.

After watching the Beverly hillbillies DVD on the laptop, we went to bed.

day 3

2006-09-29T10:29:00.000-04:00

Thursday September 28, 2006

Mario woke up at 6am, I kept sleeping this morning. He did all the pre-trip engine checks by himself. I had one too many beers at Hooters last night at Water side Marina.

I made breakfast, Fried eggs and toasted Cuban bread which was still good from when I brought it last Friday.

It is now 7:50am and we just fired up the engines and they are sounding great. I did my first practice taking her out of the slip since it was a wide one and with not a lot of traffic around it (Yes Mario helped me) but at least I got the idea, and along the way I am sure I will do so many that by the time I get to Miami I will be able to dock all by my self on a slip that has two mega yachts at each end and with Mario sitting all the way at the bow holding a drink in his hand. Well I am exaggerating a little, but we’ll see how it goes. We practiced last night at hooters over beers with his two fingers which I pretended were the gear levers ( the waitress thought we were crazy) but we are, besides, we are cruisers now and no longer day trippers but real sailors now. Well we are planning to do about 45 miles today with no particular destination. We will be taking the Dismal Swamp route since the wind is starting to pick up today. The GPS is the most amazing piece of equipment I have ever seen. It gives you sooo many details, from under ground obstructions to phone numbers of marinas and details of it services to the time the sun will go down and other. I highly recommend it to anyone (but please hire the installer way in advance ). Well we found a couple docked by us who came down from Long Island New York. They left at 6am and got in to Virginia just a few minutes before us around 830pm. You know they were going well over 30 knots and the yacht was a large “down east” style boat. I bet their fuel bill was as much as we paid for our boat  There was also another trawler we met at the dock that were doing the ICW down to Ft. Lauderdale. They left like ½ hour before us. Hopefully we will meet them on the way.
We needed to have breakfast before we said good bye to the shore power.
Jordan Lift bridge was opened for a barge coming in and we took advantage and went under. Just before that one there was one that did not open till 830 there was no way we were waiting. The clearance was 13 feet, so I went up and lowered the bimini top and brought down the antenna we were then clear by two feet.

There is an incredible amount of navy ships up here, they all look so powerful. We took lots of pics.

We went via the Great Dismal Swamp system. The passage through there is pretty interesting with a feeling of adventure albeit a slow one. We were limited to about 5.4 kts to make the locks on time for their scheduled openings. Well it turned out to be a good all around speed because along the swamp you’ll find lots of debris especially tree stumps and logs on the surface and under water. How do I know? Well it makes a horrible noise when it gets in the prop. No damage done but it sure as hell will scare the shit out of anyone. Over all, we loved it.

We made it all the way to Elizabeth city, NC at 6:00 pm. Nice day if only 45 mi where traveled.
(Elizabeth City bridge)

day 2

2006-09-29T10:28:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

We departed the Solomon’s at 9:05 am. For a long day of cruising. We left a little late. If figured we would be arriving just after sunset at the mouth of Norfolk harbor. Not exactly what I wanted but what the hay. Again, another day of oily flat seas. You can see your reflection in the surface, I love that. The trip was uneventful and after fueling we arrived at waterfront marina in Norfolk at 9:30 pm, 12 hours and 25 minutes. 123 gal of fuel while averaging 8.5 kts. Not bad. Yaisy and I headed for the showers after registering then went to Hooters.

Day 1 Finally, ready for sea.

2006-09-29T10:27:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, September 26, 2006

Today is the day we have been waiting for a long time. Nothing left to do except to go for it. After sleeping in, we woke up to a beautiful day. We had breakfast together like always. But today we felt more excited then ever. It was with a heavy heart that we said good bye to our good friends at Skipjacks. Thanks to the kind and professional folks at Skipjack Landing Marine Center and in no small part to people like Amos the parts manager who has met my challenge with the constant barrage of parts orders that I would throw at him several times a day and to the speedy turn around that he would achieve in getting to me what I needed when I needed it was one of the contributing factors that at I was able to finish on time. A special thanks to Ralph in taking the time to answer my questions however odd they were and who designed my bilge pump electrical schematic in a way that was easy to understand. To Lori who was always able to schedule me in with little notice for haul out and in as well as quick responses to my questions. Thanks Jennifer for keeping me informed of what parts where on order and which had arrived. Thanks Chris and Andy for letting me borrow some tools and Wesley for helping me. But special thanks goes to Tony who unselfishly gave his time and expertise To make sure we had a good boat before we set out.

We had a great 6 hour trip to Solomon Island. The boat ran great. The seas where oily flat the whole way there. We made about 8.5 kts on average and took on 62.5 gals of fuel. Just over 10 gal an hour. Yaisy drove most of the way. In fact I had to tear her away from the helm so she could take a break and nap. She absolutely loves her.

We followed a convoy of trawlers into the Solomon’s. It was trawler fest weekend there and we got in just in time since the slips where going fast. We found a slip at Spring cove marina. Just down past the famous Washburn’s boat yard where we saw Joan and Bruce Kessler’s Northern Marine Sprit of Zopilote. Spring Cove marina is a great place with great facilities.

Yaisy and I settled in and made dinner onboard then had some drinks on the aft deck in celebration of our first leg in our Hatteras.

Later after a few more drinks, Yaisy wanted to go for a spin in the 2 person inflatable. She wanted to row so I didn’t complain. I took the duty of being her cup holder. My hands where full for sure. Lots of people got a kick out of seeing us rowing around the docks, lots of thumbs up from other boats, I wonder why?

2006-09-29T10:26:00.000-04:00

Monday September 25,

We are not leaving today, that is for sure. The electronics are not up yet Mario spent all night running the wires for the GPS it was a major headache for me anyways from just watching him, he was loving it. Well we woke up bright and early again and Mario thinks he is ready to install the Garmin 3210 GPS, which he was told was plug and play. We were originally going to get the 3210 and the 178c at West Marine for around $4k but we were told about an online store called Boatfix where everything is a lot less than everywhere else. I purchased the whole bundle for $3k. Sure enough it was not plug and play there were a zillion different color cables to be soldered together and Mario had not the slightest idea of where or how to begin. He is super smart about everything BUT electronics. Plus by today his brain is pretty fried from all the work he has been doing and hours put into it all. The electronics shop closest to us does not work on Garmin’s they said. So we kept calling all over town to find a electronics tech that would know how to put together the Garmin (nothing) I came up with an idea and told Mario how about we call West Marine around the corner and ask them who installed the one they have on display… It was indeed a brilliant idea; they recommended a couple of the best guys on the other side of town. We had to pay for their Travel since we wanted them right away. The GPS was the only thing holding us back now. Well we said we needed the help and knew we were calling with a very short notice and said we will pay what ever it takes. Quick tip “never sound desperate” we paid hard for it at a $1100  yeap $1100 just for them to get the Garmins to work (5 hour job, two guys) and mind you, Mario had already ran all the wires. The Garmin ended up costing us $4k, so never trust a box when it tells you on the outside “plug and play”, it sure was not. Anyways without it we couldn’t make it so we did what we had to do.

Just when I was about to start cleaning the interior, Tony, one of the great mechanics Skipjacks has showed up and looked at everything for the last time to ensure we would have a safe trip. I have no idea how to thank him for everything he did for us. He treated us like family members and cared for our safety. Tony saw it all and said “we are ready for a test drive, lets go now before the sun goes down”. So we did from the Fly bridge we took her out about 6-7 miles off of Skipjacks. The boat ran great, I drove for part of it and then Tony did the other half. Mario docked it, he is the expert at that.

It is now 5:30pm I took every single item out of the aft deck and the solon to start cleaning and placed everything all over the dock, our stuff pretty much took all of the dock. We have been very busy all last week and Mario’s hands are getting more and more swollen by the minute. I took over the writing so he can rest. Last night we finished all the maintenance and started at around 2am with the cosmetics.

We put up a very nice light cream color Berber carpet and we put together all the new furniture we bought at Kmart. We got the whole Martha Stewart collection, everything looks beautiful. We also put up some very nice wooden material blinds.

It is now 4am and we are ready for bed. Just when we thought we going on our way to the forward state room, we realized we had a car to return to Avis at BWI. That is a 40 min drive from Skipjacks. There is no one around at this time to give us a ride back so we took a taxi ($90) back to the boat.

2006-09-29T10:25:00.000-04:00

Friday, September 22, 2006

Big day today. It’s been a mad rush the last couple of days. I started early on installing the transducers.
After finishing the ducers, I had one more raw water hose to install. Launching was planned for 2:00 and it was getting close to that time. The new 4 bladed wheels were installed while sting in the slings.

I asked Wesley to let me stay in the slings while in the water to check for leaks. Good thing I did this because I found one of the transducer probes leaking. So back up we go. I pulled out the ducer probe and found one of the O rings cracked. It took me a little while, but I found the correct size O ring. Back in the water I checked again for leaks. None found. It was getting late and Yaisy was due to arrive at the airport around 10:00 but I still needed to have the engine work I did looked over by a professional. Tony came to the rescue. He checked the engines over, had me remove and replace a new raw water impeller which had broken due to my improper installation. Tony also fixed a bad starboard tachometer. Once done, I thanked Tony for the generous help he has given me. I fired up and moved the boat back to her slip. It felt good to be back in the water.

It was getting late so I rushed in and out of the shower and jumped into the car to pick up Yaisy. Along the drive I felt something sticky on the arm rest of the rent a car. The stickiness was a large streak of 3M 5200 that was running from the back of my wrist to my elbow. Of course, as I looked around the car I see 5200 everywhere! I pulled into the airport just in time to receive Yaisy at the baggage claim. I unstuck myself from the car and put Yaisy’s bags in the car. I was so silly happy to see her. The rest of the weekend will be spent finishing up small maintenance items and installing the gps’s and the vhf’s. Yaisy is going to remodel the interior.

2006-09-29T10:24:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

It’s a little cooler and breezy this morning. It looks like fall is coming early. Lots of things finished today. Finally, nice to see real progress. Some of the projects completed are, the Bilge pump system, new ignition wires, new cap and rotors. The thru hull valves are on. Also, Amos was able to get the parts for my spare parts kit and the small oil line that I couldn’t get anywhere. Not much else went on. I need to start thinking of putting the boat back in the water around Friday to check for leaks and run the engines. Another easy night but my knees are killing me and so are my hands.

2006-09-29T10:23:00.001-04:00

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Woke up to a bright and sunny day. After my coffee, I jumped into the car and headed into town. I dropped off my laundry at the Laundromat and drove over to the welder to get the cooler welded. The welder an older fellow by the name of bobby was in his shop drinking his morning beer. After walking around an obstacle course of rusted steel, I get to him. After exchanging good mornings, I ask him to weld this for me. He agreed and started preparing for the job. Bobby the welder is an amusing guy. He has sort of a “oh’ well” demeanor. But the funniest thing is that every other word out of his mouth it a cuss word. Realizing that if I stayed around his shop, he wouldn’t get very far fixing the cooler besides, I still needed to go to NAPA and get some hoses made.

I stopped by the laundry to see if my clothes were done. The lady there waves me off telling me to come back in a few minutes. At NAPA, I have the hoses made, and I drive back to the welding shop. I walk in to the shop and saw Bobby the welder sitting around drinking beers with some friends of his. Thinking he hasn’t fixed the cooler. I ask him, he said “oh’ yeah, but wait let me tell you this funny story”. I sigh, but Bobby is pretty funny so I listen to his story. Well, all I can say is that his story would be pretty funny if you were a welder. I asked him if he wanted me to come back later and he said “why?” I told him I needed my cooler and he said “oh yeah, it over there”. Rolling my eyes, I walk over to where he pointed. I found it among a bunch of crap. I paid him and left. I got my laundry done, and headed back to the boat.

I checked with Amos to see if any parts came in for me. He said no. I did receive a large spool of heavy gauge wire for the bilge pumps. I grab it and head for the boat. It took me for ever, but I finally have the hoses done. I also wired up the bilge pumps to the newly installed wiring. My body has really been aching me from all of the bending and kneeling and the countless of cuts and bruises, so I called it a night and showered and went to bed around 11:00.

2006-09-29T10:23:00.000-04:00

Monday, September 18, 2006

I got up early around 9:00 or so. Did my morning ritual and jumped right into finishing the engine hoses. In the process of connecting the last hose to the oil cooler I realized that the cooler had a hole in it. So off the hose comes again. It took me for ever to remove the oil lines to the oil cooler. In the end the cooler came out but I’ll need to replace the oil lines too.

Later after lunch, I started the big project of wiring the new bilge pump system. Electrical engineering is definitely not one of my strongest skills. But if I have some sort of plan or instruction I can do it. That’s where Ralph came in. I asked him what was the best way to wire four bilge pumps (yes, four). He showed me the right way and I made a schematic like drawing that only I could understand and went to work. It took me most of the day to figure out where I wanted to mount the electrical system. I finally finished wiring really late.

2006-09-29T10:22:00.001-04:00

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Today started out bright and sunny. Beautiful in fact. After breakfast Yaisy helped me lower the dingy off the top of the boat. The funny thing about the dingy is that it is the original dingy that the original owner back in 1965 placed on top of the boat. The second owner, who owned her for over 20 years, which is the person that we bought the boat from told me that he never used the dingy. In fact he never lowered the dingy off the top of the boat! Very bizarre. Sadly, the dingy is in such bad condition that it is completely unsalvageable. The dingy hull is made up of some kind of plastic. Being of that material and sitting on top of the boat all of these years has baked the plastic making it very brittle. In fact the hull had a crack going form bow to stern. Anyhow, Yaisy helped me throw it over the side and onto the ground where it completely destroyed it’s self upon contact. Very sad ending. After doing another trip to west marine to plan the bilge pump set up, we went over to k-mart again for more cleaning stuff and some bath room decorations that she had in mind (sea shells). Back at the boat, we had lunch together. Yaisy commented on how quiet and peaceful it was here, she felt relaxed, I was just happy as usual. Later after lunch, Yaisy super cleaned the bathroom (head) and super cleaned the closet. She through out more old, dirty, smelly stuff. I had the unpleasureable task of sanding the old bottom paint off the shafts and rudders and replace the old zincs with new ones.

Time started to fly, and I sadly realized I needed to take Yaisy back to airport so she can go back home. We showered and got dressed. She packed a smaller bag since most of what she brought she will need for the trip anyways. Yaisy waves good bye to her boat and were off. We arrive at the airport with 1 hour to spare before departure. I take her to the ticket counter & helped her check her bag. I say good bye her with a lump in my throat. I tell her to kiss the kids for me and to call me when she gets home. I really wanted to go home…

2006-09-29T10:22:00.000-04:00

Saturday, September 16, 2006

7:00 am, “ring-ring”, “ring-ring” goes Yaisy’s cell phone. She picks up the call and is surprised that it’s the driver from the airport waiting outside of the boat yard gate with her bags, great! Since we’re up we make it an early start to a long day. After having some breakfast, I jump back into the engine room to remove the last of the engine hoses. Yaisy, the clean freak, started the massive task of cleaning every inch the stateroom and throwing out a bunch of old, moldy junk that was stored on the boat over the years. Later in the day, we went to K-mart so Yaisy could buy what she needed for the boat. After Yaisy finished cleaning the stateroom, I peeked inside and I couldn’t believe my eyes. The room looked like it was brand new! Really like a new boat, extremely clean. The walls were white and the smell was just wonderful.

Late in the afternoon, the weather finally broke. Every once in a while you’ll see some blue sky. Yaisy needed to go into town because she was trying to get our lap top computer to receive wireless internet through her phone so she can stay in touch with her job duties and other things while we are on our ICW trip. Since we needed to download some software, I took her to the Hilton hotel on the Kent Narrows in Grasonville which was about 5 mins away. She loved the scenery along the way. She is right, the Chesapeake and its surrounding towns are beautiful. After finally figuring out the computer thing, we finally had wireless internet.

In the evening around 6:30 or so we finally stopped for the day. We were amazed of all the things that we accomplished today but that’s no big secrete to me anyway, Yaisy and I have always made a great team. Since it was Yaisy’s last night here, I thought she would like to go to the Crab Deck for a crab feast. Yaisy, never saying no to a good feast wouldn’t have had it any other way. We shower and get dressed and headed over to the Crab Deck. We arrived to a full house. We put our names on the list and headed over to the bar for a few drinks. It was such a nice night, we walked the docks a bit while we waited to be seated, and we talked to some nice lady that was happy to hear that we were doing the ICW to Miami. After a little wait, we were called. I of course ordered the cream of crab soup which is believed to be the best on the island. Yaisy had the same and she absolutely loved it. I also had a dozen Maryland styled steamed blue crabs with Old Bay seasoning over them, delicious. Yaisy had a couple of my crabs but she ordered pasta seafood called the Neptune. The Neptune consisted of creamy, penne style pasta with jumbo scallops, shrimp and crab meat sautéed in a white wine sauce (highly recommend).

We got back to the boat and were asleep in minutes.

2006-09-29T10:20:00.000-04:00

Friday, September 15, 2006

The forecast for the weekend calls for drier weather; let’s hope so because today is still on the wet side and gloomy. Speaking of gloomy, I’ve been feeling down for the past couple of days. This morning, as I woke up after a restful nights sleep. I realized that I have been missing my wife and children for the past week. I have a bad case of home sickness. Funny, it hardly ever kicks in, while I’m flying unless I’m away for a very long time (more than a couple of days). The thing is that I’m not flying now, so my mind is saying I should be home with my family. I’ve been missing my wife and boys dearly.

Realizing that if I stay thinking about home, I might not get my list of things done for today. I jump out of my bed, and headed for the head (the “head” is the bathroom for you land folks). After that, I drank my Cuban coffee and drove to West Marine. While I’m there I get my morning call from Yaisy. Yaisy tells me she has a surprise. I’m not one for surprises so I ask her to tell me quickly. She tells me to be at the airport in Baltimore in 4 hours because she is sitting on a plane as we speak! WOW! My jaw just dropped at that moment, I couldn’t believe it. And just as I was feeling my worst, Yaisy comes through with the cure (thanks baby). I tell her not to worry I’ll be there. I am feeling much better now.

Back at the boat it’s turning out to be a great day today! First, I got the propellers (thanks Dave)! And finished most of the cooling hoses on the engines, Overhauled and replaced the raw water pumps and received my new bilge pumps. After a few more trips to the parts store here at the yard, and rapidly cleaning up the place to at least give Yaisy a half way clean boat to arrive to for the first time. I haul ass to the showers, get dressed, combed my hair and hauled ass to the airport. I arrive at the airport at 8:30pm, just as Yaisy was getting off the plane and going to the baggage claiming area. She calls me and tells me that her bags are no where to be found. I park just outside of the door. After a long wait she finally comes out without her checked bags. It seems that they stayed behind in Atlanta where she caught her connecting flight to Baltimore. Although she was somewhat angry, it didn’t really matter. We were happy to see each other. The airline promised to deliver the bags to the boat yard first thing in the morning. We arrive at our boat around 11:00 pm. Yaisy was thrilled when she saw our boat for the first time. I can truly tell you that I felt very proud at that moment. Yaisy and I were starving but she had another surprise in store for me. She carried by hand, all the way from home our dinner that she made for us before leaving. I love you…

2006-09-29T10:16:00.000-04:00

Thursday, September 14, 2006

This morning it started raining and it hasn’t finished yet. Sadly, I had to go topside around 5:00am to cover the portable air conditioner because it started dripping rain water around the sides of the hatch which are stuffed with soft foam. Around 9:30 I got up and noticed it was still raining. I also noticed that my bed sheets were wet from the rain leaking in. later that morning, I went to West Marine to choose a VHF radio. I don’t buy much in West Marine stores, but it’s a great place to shop, find what you need, study it, then order it on line where it’s much cheaper. After picking two radios, one for the fly bridge and one for the lower station I headed for the hardwere store to buy a large tarp to cover the portiable AC to keep the rain out. I can’t wait to get a real AC like a good, large reverse cycle AC unit. So I can get rid of that pain in the ass portable. Since I was on the road, I dropped off my dirty laundry including my wet sheets at the Laundromat.

Back at Skipjacks, I entered the parts department and found the service guys organizing my newly arrived parts. Great! I can finally start putting things back on the boat. So I gathered my parts which were the new thru-hulls and ball valves. Unfourtunately, they received the wrong bilge pumps, Jennifer the gal who ordered them apologized and said I would have them first thing tomorrow morning. Amos the parts guy came in late today. So Ralph helped me with another piece of hose that was cut to short the first time around and I picked up a pair of impellers for the raw water pump. Back on the boat, I prepped for the day’s work which consisted of installing the thru-hulls, and rebuilding the pumps. I was able to install the thru-hulls but I had a problem with the transducer that came with the Garmin 3210. It was the right one but the shank of the ducer was to short. So I couldn’t install that thru-hull. I called Yaisy and told her to order a longer one and while she was at it, to order another Garmin GPS 178c for the fly bridge and two Icom VHF marine radios. Realizing that I needed to change a small oil line which goes to the remotely mounted oil sending unit on the starboard engine, I jumped in the car a ran over to NAPA so they can make a pair for me. Well, this cannot be that easy. NAPA didn’t have the right hose for the job. Even worse, I couldn’t find anyone that could make a hose locally. So back I went to Amos and told him I need this part but I couldn’t find a part number to help him. He’ll have to call the Chrysler guys and describe the part. It’s in his hands now.

Back on the boat I stayed busy fighting the rain. The rain kept me busy trying to keep things dry in the bilge. The shop vac came through again making my clean up much easier. Tomorrow, I’m expecting a new set of 4 bladed 20 x 20 propellers. I hope it doesn’t rain and I hope I get some more parts so I can see real progress.

2006-09-29T10:15:00.000-04:00

Wed, September 13, 2006

This morning is the morning that the cutlass bearings are going to be replaced with new ones. How do I know? Because I was awaken from a deep sleep around a quarter to 10:00am by Wes banging on the propellers with a large hammer to break them free from the shaft. Realizing that I could learn something about removing the cutlass bearings, I quickly got dressed and headed down the latter. Wes was just finishing removing the last prop. I asked if I could help him remove the bearings, Wes didn’t mind the extra help and agreed. The funny thing about removing cutlass bearings is that everyone I spoke to told me that it would take the whole day to remove. Well, since I had an invested interest in seeing that the bearings would be removed as fast as possible to avoid a large labor bill from the yard. I was again happily surprised that both bearings came out without a fuss by using a heavy-duty hydraulic press to push out the bearings. Total time, 1 hour and 15 minutes. Yes, that made me very happy. I thanked Wes and picked up a badly worn bearing to take to Amos so he can order two new ones. A little more engine hose replacement work and removing the raw water pump as well as removing a oil line that I’ll have made new at NAPA tomorrow.

I forgot to tell you that in this boat yard there is hardly any cell phone reception. So I’m sort of in the dark for the better part of the day until I either walk all the way to the office to use the phone or when I jump into the car and head into town for stuff that I can use my cell phone. The funny thing about that is that last night I placed my cell phone in a new location to charge and suddenly it started to ring! But the funnier thing is that every time I touch the phone I would loose reception and the call would drop. So I figured out that if I left the cell in the same exact place as it was before I should get a little reception again. This time, to receive a call or to dial I could only use the speaker phone feature and stand back to talk. Very funny indeed.

2006-09-29T10:13:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Amazingly, I woke up around 9:30am. Today is haul-out day. I got ready, made myself a strong Cuban café and looked for Wes the guy that was going to haul out our boat. I found him. He told me to give him a few minutes to park a boat he was moving and when he was ready, he would wave me over to the lift. Back at the boat, I prepared for the move. Shortly thereafter, Wes motioned me over. I fired her up and moved her into position over the slings of the lift. After Wes pressure cleaned the bottom, I snapped a few pictures and we were off to the yard where she would be blocked. Once secured in place. My first order of duty was to remove all thru-hulls of the boat and replace with new ones. Interestingly, what I thought would be a half a day’s job at least unscrewing those petrified gate valves turned out to be a one hour job. Truth be told, I tried to unscrew the first thru-hull but quickly realized it wasn’t coming off without a fight. So reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out a large disk grinder and quickly did away with those 41 year old valves. Of course I quickly patted myself on the back since no one was around to witness my achievement.

Having finished that project off the list, I started on the engines. Overall the engines are good but could use some new hoses as well as some other tune-up items like new raw water impellers and cleaning out the heat exchangers. After placing an order for parts with Amos, I had the engine hoses cut to size. Unfortunately Amos ran out of a particularly sized exhaust hose but he said he would have it the next day. I went and installed the ones I had made. The rest of the day was spent shopping around for supplies. I showered and turned in early around midnight.

2006-09-29T10:11:00.000-04:00

Monday September 11, 2006

After what seemed like 5 minutes of sleep, I was up at 8:00am. As I was getting dressed for today’s work, I realized the date it was and how angry it still makes me. Putting that thought away in back of my mind, I headed into the office to let them know I was here. After being introduced to all of the people I’ll be seeing daily like Amos the parts guy, I headed out to the hardware store. There I picked up around 10 gallons of Simple Green degreaser and some tools. From there I went over to K-mart and got a shop vac, rags, scrubbing brushes, flash lights and some other stuff. Finally I got back to the boat around 9:30am or so. I picked the floor hatches to expose the engines and the bilge areas. After a few cuss words I got into the bilge on my hands and knees and proceeded to degrease and scrub every inch that I could get to too remove as much grease and mud and god only knows what could be sitting in there. If there is something I can’t stand is a dirty bilge! After all, I am the one that has to work in there so why do I have to sit, slip and slide around in there. Let me tell you that the shop vac paid for it’s self immediately buy vacuuming away all of that crap mixed in degreaser. So finally after 15 hours of back breaking, knuckle busting and skinned knees with barely a break to eat, the bilge is finally clean. I showered and turned in around 4:00am.

The begining...

2006-09-29T10:04:00.000-04:00

Sunday September 10, 2006

Wow, what a day. I jump seated in, on Southwest Airlines into Baltimore in the morning and arrived around 10:00 am. Rented my car and arrived in Chester Maryland Around noon. I met our broker at his office and he drove me over to pick up my boat. Along for the trip was an old fellow by the name of Captain Ken. He was going to guide me to Skipjack Landing Marine Center in “Crab alley”. We had a great ride out of the Wye River, very beautiful scenery. Ken my guide told me to speed up if I liked, but I like to go slow around 9 or 10 kts. Ken also told me he new the Chesapeake like the back of his hand so of course after he said that, we ran aground. Good thing I was going slow as we were able to slowly and carefully back off the sand bar. No damage to the boat due to the deep keel the boat has and thanks to the strong construction that Hatteras put into their boats. The only major damage was to Ken’s ego. He apologized several times but I told him not to worry.

Once we were under way again, we were close to Ken’s yacht club (I can’t remember the name). We were thirsty so we headed that way. In the club, I slowly eased the boat to a starboard landing on the last T dock of the club. After tying off the boat, we went in for something cold and some lunch. I was introduced to the Vice Commodore of the club. I told him we were members of the Miami Outboard Club, he was delighted and said to drop in for a visit once we get the boat ready for the trip. I also asked him if we could exchange burgees, He happily agreed. After one or two more refreshments, Ken and I casted off the lines and we were off to “Crab Alley”.

We finally arrived at Skipjacks and quickly found my slip. I backed the boat right into the slip 14 on “A” dock with no problems. The boat ran great. I hooked up the shore power but I wasn’t getting any power. The big problem was that it was Sunday and the yard office was closed. Oh’ well, I guess I’ll have to wait until the morning. After I dropped off Ken, I was off to the store to buy lots of cleaning supplies and a few assorted tools I would need and some groceries. Once I got back to the boat and unloaded the two dock carts full of gear and supplies, I sat down and took a deep breath and made a mental note of all the items I needed to do and in what order. The very first thing on my list was to clean all of the living spaces that I would be using. This included the master stateroom, the head as well as the galley. After a general cleaning of these areas of which Yaisy can do a better job that I can ever do, I was done with cleaning for now.

It was getting dark and I was worried about the batteries. I really needed shore power for the battery charger. Besides, I wasn’t going to sweat it out all night in the heat and humidity. So with the sun setting, I was determined to hook up to some power. I found the meter box but the breakers were on so I went back to my slip and noticed that the empty slip next to me had an outlet close to mine. I grabbed my power cord and ran it across to the other outlet and to my joy the boat lit up like a Christmas tree. Back on our boat, I unpacked my bag and got my clean clothes and headed for the marina showers. I was relived to find clean facilities and well lit and private. Once showered and back on the boat, I realized how tired I was. It was now close to 2:00am so I turned on our portable, hatch mounted air conditioner and jumped into bed. It felt so good to lie down and finally settle into some really needed rest and just as I was dozing off, the lights go out. Here I am, half asleep jumping out of bed in boat I barely know, fumbling for the door in the dark. I finally get topside and realize that the wind picked up and through the rocking of the boat it knocked off the power cord. I put it back in and adjusted it so it wouldn’t fall off again. I jumped back into bed and at 3:00am I fell asleep.

We saw it, we liked it, we bought it!

2006-08-19T17:59:00.000-04:00

Well, I got to see her. She looked good for her age, so we went ahead with the survey and sea trial. Amazingly, all went well. The items that came up during the inspection where minimal and were predicted before hand. Some items where like the shaft stuffing boxes needs tightening, and a rudder post needs to be repacked. Other items were like some soft spots in the cockpit that needs to be fixed and some lights that weren't working. She could use some paint in the future. The surveyor was pretty impressed with the old gal. He said that this boat should be a lesson to other builders on how to build a boat. Very encouraging! Yaisy is happy with the results of the survey and can't wait to start decorating her. We plan on closing the deal on Monday the 21st. I'll need to find a place to park her while I fix the items found and prepare the boat for a trip down the ICW that Yaisy and I have planned. What a great trip this is going to be. "A trip of a lifetime" as I like to call it. We're shooting for the end of September or early October but in all reality, we'll start the trip down when the boat and us are ready.

Both of our boys can't wait either. I told our 6 yr old son Mario that we will be searching for gold and treasure in the keys. Now that's all he's talking about now. The other night while surfing on the web, I showed him Fort Jefferson in the Florida keys and said that there was probably treasure hidden there. You can really see him thinking and analyzing all of this. I could only image what his dreams must be like. Jose, our little one who is almost 2 years old includes the word "bote" (boat in Spanish) in every other word he says in his baby vocabulary. I am pretty excited too, I can't wait to relax in the cockpit with Yaisy and having some cold drinks while we're watching the sun set on Biscayne Bay. But I must confess, I too dream of the treasure hunt, and every other word that comes out of my mouth is "boat"...

Here are a few pics of the survey.

Contract on a boat!

2006-07-30T21:52:00.000-04:00

Hi all, a week ago I was doing my usual search on Yachtworld looking for a YachtFisher. I happen to stumble into a rare model that Hatteras made in the mid sixties. It's 1965 34' Hatteras Sedan Cruiser. It's allot smaller than what I wanted but Yaisy had a point that a boat like this was comfortable for us and cheaper to buy than a 58' Yachtfisher. she also made another good point that when the time came we would sell this boat and buy the Yachtfisher. So I called the listing broker and made a low ball offer thinking he would refuse. well as luck would have it, he agreed to my offer and now we are scheduled for a survey in 10 days! the boat is up in Maryland which would make it a trip of a life time if we buy it and sail it back to Miami.

I'll keep you all posted.

here's a picture of the boat.

se ya,

Mario

update

2006-03-29T09:51:00.000-04:00

Crap! I deleted my previous post! I had posted an announcement about a boat that we were interested in in early February. We had placed an offer and the offer was accepted subject to sea trial and survey. Unfortunately, it looks like we're still boatless. I couldn't close the deal due to bad financial and personal timing. The deal was to buy the boat while still winterized and out of the water. I couldn't convince myself to do it. I just didn't feel comfortable buying a boat without a sea trial first. To me, it's just to large of an investment to risk taking someone else's word in hopes that the boat is as advertised. I'm sure a partial survey out of the water would be satisfactory in checking the condition of the hull and other structures as well as some systems like electrical, some mechanical and some plumbing but I feel a boat should be tested by way of a sea trial before taking all of the required steps in buying a boat of this caliber.

*sigh*

next...

Mario

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

2006-01-05T19:43:00.000-04:00

Happy New Year to all. We are doing fine and the boys are growing strong. We are still looking and planning on how to get our Hatteras but our jobs take up most of our time. but as time passes, we slowly get closer to one day owning a YF.

I'll try to post some pics of some boats that I have been looking at.

later,

Mario

FINALLY!!

2005-05-28T17:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally figured it all out on how to post pictures into our blog, no thanks to "pisca" and "hello", their service is crap. I'm now using www.photobucket.com for our picture hosting. It's free and all I have to do is cut and paste the url (it even puts the "tag" for you)unfortunately it took me the better part of the afternoon to figure all of this out (I'm not very computer literate).

now I can get started "bloging" our lifes adventures. I must give special thanks to Tom and Jessi whose personal blog was our inspiration for starting our own, thanks guys. you can see Tom and Jessi's page at: www.bigbadboatblog.blogspot.com

By the way, this is what I must have looked like when I figured out how to do this

2005-05-28T16:58:00.000-04:00

58' Hatteras Yachtfish "our dream boat"

2005-05-28T16:44:00.000-04:00

My lovely wife Yaisy

2005-05-28T16:43:00.000-04:00

our sons Jose (left) Mario (right)

2005-05-28T16:41:00.000-04:00